West Virginia Health Care Authority

100 Dee Drive
Charleston WV 25311
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Monday-Friday
8:30am-5:00pm

Phone 304-558-7000
Fax 304-558-4776


Cooperative Agreements

The West Virginia Health Care Authority is responsible for the review of cooperative agreements required under W. Va. Code § 16-29B-28.  

A cooperative agreement is defined in W. Va. Code § 16-29B-28(a)(3) as “an agreement between a qualified hospital which is a member of an academic medical center and one or more other hospitals or other health care providers.  The agreement shall provide for the sharing, allocation, consolidation by merger or other combination of assets, or referral of patients, personnel, instructional programs, support services and facilities or medical, diagnostic, or laboratory facilities or procedures or other services traditionally offered by hospitals or other health care providers.” 

W. Va. Code § 16-29B-28(c) states “The Legislature encourages cooperative agreements if the likely benefits of such agreements outweigh any disadvantages attributable to a reduction in competition.  When a cooperative agreement, and the planning and negotiations of cooperative agreements, might be anticompetitive within the meaning and intent of state and federal antitrust laws the Legislature believes it is in the state’s best interest to supplant such laws with regulatory approval and oversight by the Health Care Authority as set out in this article.  The authority has the power to review, approve or deny cooperative agreements, ascertain that they are beneficial to citizens of the state and to medical education, to ensure compliance with the provisions of the cooperative agreements relative to the commitments made by the qualified hospital and conditions imposed by the Health Care Authority.”

The parties to a cooperative agreement are required to submit an annual report to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources or his or her designee.  The Health Care Authority utilizes the annual report, as well as other information available to it, in performing the active supervision of a cooperative agreement.  

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